Bradojo1400

HELLO

So I have a driver thing, I have a Mac, I have GarageBand, I have an electric guitar (duh), I have a distortion pedal, I have an amp, and I have an external plug-in mic.

When I record guitar using the driver, the quality of the recording sucks because the guitar effects GB provides are horrible (unless I'm not screwing around with them enough)

I'm always striving to get a distorted guitar sound, like todays modern and alternative rock, but I don't want horrible quality. I want it to sound like you would hear on a pro band's CD. Is that possible? How can I get the best guitar sound? Through the amp and into the mic, or through my driver and into my computer, or what? Its very annoying, I hate recording such a crappy sound. I would really appreciate help, I asked this somewhere else on here but I am still confused on what I should do do get the best sound possible.

THANKYOU

Cavalcade

You'll have to give some samples for us to help you, but here's some general advice: learn to EQ. Tweak your settings non-stop. Experiment with mic placement. But mostly, learn to EQ. Most "bedroom" tone comes from not properly EQing your guitars.

Bradojo1400

Examples of what exactly? And alright I'm going to experiment with the EQ...And so you suggest I record through the mic rather than plugging my guitar into the driver and into the computer?

Thanks for your response

Cavalcade

Samples. Sound clips. We need to hear what's wrong, rather than have it described, to give the best advice. But I think I know what you're talking about. You can't just plug your amp's record-out into your computer; the point of micing it in the first place is to soften the sound a bit by giving it some air. If you're dead-set on recording directly, you can do that on your computer, though; look into our amp sim thread, and download a cabinet simulator.

ItsThatDude

If you want that ridiculous 80's super squeaky clean, check out how Andy Summers had his rig set up for Zenyatta Mondata, and the recording methods he used for his guitar as well. That's a pretty clear sound in my mind

Whoops! I actually read your post, I'm gonna need to hear what you're talking about. All I can say is EQ, EQ, EQ.

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Bradojo1400

Forgive my noobiness, but Cavalade, where would one find this amp sim thread you speak of? I just tried looking for it but im probably doing this wrong.

CarsonStevens

Slightly OT, but...

You know what I'd love to see? An article (or series of articles) outlining, say, the Top 10 Most Commonly-Made Mistakes by amateur recorders.

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Cavalcade

It's one of the stickied threads.

Bradojo1400

Thanks, and so I'll download one or some of these and do what with them? sorry, I'm new to these things! What are these simulators and things?

Cavalcade

First off, we're still waiting on those samples.

Here's what happens to a guitar signal in a professional modern-metal setup.
First, there's usually a pedal gain stage before the amp, an overdrive or tube screamer. Then comes the amp head. That's where most of the gain takes place, along with some basic equalization with the bass/mid/treble knobs, among other things. The valves give the sound its distorted character.
What comes out of the amp head is a violent, distorted, trebly mess. But then, it goes into the speaker cabinet, and the speakers' acoustic response softens it a bit, making it sound more natural.
You can simulate all three of these stages with the right plugins, and that thread has all of them. But somewhere between the guitar and your ears, you'll want:
*An overdrive/tube screamer pedal (optional)
*An amp simulator to give it some gain and character
*A cabinet simulator (or "cab sim") to soften the sound
Even if you play metal, you WILL NEED a cab sim (or real cabinet) unless you want to sound like a lost Burzum demo. It's important.

Bradojo1400

I see, so will these amp simulators work with GarageBand and other DAWs? And are they better than the ones provided in GB?

And how can I like, send or upload a sample?

Cavalcade

They're mostly VST plugins; they're the industry standard. I'm not sure if GB will support them, since I haven't used it, but most DAWs should.

You'll have to answer that one for yourself.

Use the "My MP3s " section of your UG profile.

Bradojo1400

Alright, I uploaded a quick simple example.
Check it out and you'll hear the crappiness.

Recorded it through my driver; not through amp to mic

Bradojo1400

Off by heart, is there a specific one I should download in order to get a modern punk alternative, (basically rock ) sound?

Cavalcade

It sounds like you need a cab sim, just like I thought. Do what you're doing, but add a cab sim (or an IR loader; they do roughly the same thing) in GB. Which IR loader you use won't matter as much as the IRs themselves, so get anything, and you can pick something better later. For a beginner, you'll want a tone before you can get the tone. Crawling before you walk and all that.

Bradojo1400

Alright, so when I go to thread you linked earlier, which one should i download? Theres a bunch of different tittles and im confused. Im starting to understand what youve been saying though

chatterbox272

A good start would be anything under the "FREE AMP SIMS" heading, I'd recommend the mac versions of the LePou HyBrit, LeCto, Le456, and maybe LeXtac (not linked to there, but it's on the sidebar in the LePou website). These act like the head in a real amp, and those 4 should cover most tones fairly well.
Next jump down to "FREE IMPULSE LOADERS" and grab any of those, I prefer LeCab for flexibility, but if you're just starting keFIR is supposed to be much simpler to use. This will load the impulses (which will be explained in a sec). I like to think of it like the speaker cable in a real amp, because it lets you connect the virtual head to the virtual cab.
Finally go to "FREE IMPULSE RESPONSES" and download something from there. I like Catharsis but the link's dead, so I'd suggest the RedWirez Marshall 1960A. This is the equivalent of the Cab in a real amp, because it simulates the speaker and enclosure. It also simulates the mic infront of the amp and the placement of the mic.
If you're after some better high gain sounds then you can also go to the "FREE PEDALS + ENHANCERS" heading and download the TSE 808. This simulates an Ibanez TS808 Tubescreamer, Just set the Distortion to 0 the Level to max and the Tone to taste.

Once you've got those, when you load them into your DAW you want them loaded in this order: Tubescreamer (If used) > Amp Sim > Impulse Loader
E.G. TSE 808 > LeCto > LeCab (with one of the Catharsis impulses loaded)
E.G. HyBrit > keFIR (with one of the 1960A impulses loaded)

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Bradojo1400

Thanks chatterbox, im going to try those then. I havent tried all this before so im not sure if I really know what you mean by loading them in order really, ? And do you believe those things will work with GarageBand (although Im trying to learn Cubase as of 3 seconds ago)

Cavalcade

He's not asking for a completely digital rig; it sounds like he's using a real pedal and amp, then running the amp output directly into the computer, which means all he needs is a cab sim (since the amp output bypasses the actual cabinet).

And like I said in my previous post, the differences between cab sims shouldn't matter at this point. We'll burn that bridge when we get to it. (Or whatever you're supposed to do with bridges.)

To TS: Please, don't get ahead of yourself. Re-read my last two posts carefully.